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Delayed flight postpones Infante's return

Delayed flight postpones Infante's return

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Infante's injury 1:50

7/3/13: Omar Infante injures his leg after a hard slide into second by Colby Rasmus, forcing him to leave the game in the fourth inning

By Jason Beck
/
MLB.com |

KANSAS CITY -- A flight delay coming back from Florida essentially meant a lost day to travel for Tigers second baseman Omar Infante, who rejoined the team at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday evening. It also might have erased any remaining hope that he might return for the end of the upcoming series against the White Sox in Chicago.

"I'm disappointed I won't have him for that Chicago series," said manager Jim Leyland.

When there was still hope of getting Infante back to action after the All-Star break, his presence looked like a potentially big factor for the Tigers against White Sox lefties Chris Sale and Jose Quintana. They'll pitch the first two games of the upcoming series.

Instead, rookie fill-in Hernan Perez will likely get the starts.

Leyland didn't want to make excuses for his team's struggles out of the break, but he also didn't want to sugarcoat the lineup without Infante.

"We miss Omar," Leyland said. "He's a good big league player and our regular second baseman."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.